‘Lights out. Party’s over’: the annual Electric Picnic extravaganza ends on a more sustainable note

Like soldiers returning home from war, Electric Picnic festivalgoers trudged from the campsites on the Stradbally Estate to their cars on Monday morning. Dry robes and pyjamas featured strongly as a snake of people moves slowly, weathered down by the events of the weekend.

If the journey on Friday was difficult when they were filled with excitement and energy, the return on Monday was all the more challenging.

“Rise and shine,” one woman tells her friend. “I’m rising but I’m not shining,” she returns.

It was Brian Connolly’s first Electric Picnic. Standing at the entrance of the Charlie Chaplin campsite, the 31 year old is holding his bags, camping chairs and duvet. His pal, Paddy Fogarty, is holding their neatly packed-away tent.

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“It’s a good tent,” they say. “The stress of someone else picking up after us when we could just bring it home ourselves.”

The pair appear well rested, but they are quick to say they’re “absolutely b*olloxed”.

“It was a nice chilled vibe around the campsite. We had great weather. The Killers won [as best act], and Johnny Marr was brilliant,” Connolly says. “We’re already talking about next year.”

A regular at Electric Picnic, Jade should be more equipped to deal with the post-festival chaos. But, on Monday morning, she says she doesn’t “feel alive”. She has some time off before the return of reality, though she doesn’t think it will be enough. “I don’t think the rest of my life would be enough,” she adds.

Mary, who does not want to give her surname because she called in sick to work, is taking a lot of care to pack away her tent in the Janis Joplin campsite.

Following the festival, the estate is normally littered with abandoned tents, sleeping bags and camping chairs. This year, however, there is much improvement.

While there are still some discarded items, including air beds and tents, and lots of beer cans littered on the ground, it appears a concerted effort is being made by those in attendance.

The sunny weather meant tents survived the weekend in much better condition than in previous years, with attendees attributing this to their increased likelihood of being brought home.

“I have left tents here before but only when they’re absolutely wrecked,” Mary says. “But this one is still in good knick.”

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There has been a growing focus on sustainability and reuse at the festival in recent years.

Melvin Benn, managing director of Festival Republic, the company behind Electric Picnic, announced a ban on disposable vapes due to the difficulty in recycling them. There are still quite a number of discarded disposable vapes on the ground of the festival site on Monday.

“We took the decision to ban the retail of it to discourage their use and to recycle them where we could,” he says. “For me, the sooner that gets sorted out at a government level the better.”

Benn says there will be a “fairly major” announcement later this month regarding improving the sustainability of the festival, though he declines to be drawn down on what exactly that would entail.

On the issue of abandoned tents, Benn says there is only so much organisers can do to encourage proper disposal by attendees. “Ultimately, the picnic doesn’t leave anything, the picnic-goers leave them,” he adds.

“We will pick up a lot of rubbish and we will recycle almost all of it.”

But just as quickly as it came, the annual extravaganza finishes. In the words of one woman trying to drum up energy among her clan on Monday morning: “Come on, girls. Lights out. Party’s over.”